Bhattacharya S K, Tripathi S R, Kashyap S K
National Institute of Occupational Health, Meghani Nagar, Ahmedabad, India.
J Hum Ergol (Tokyo). 1993 Dec;22(2):163-72.
To evaluate the comfort of hearing protection devices, two models of ear plugs and five models of ear muffs were tested. The psychophysical method of 'single stimuli' was applied on a group of 30 subjects with or without wearing the devices for a short duration of 15 min under noise condition of 100 dBa in the acoustic chamber as also on a group of 10 weavers with the protection devices worn for longer durations of 1 h, 4 h and 8 h under noise exposure of 102-104 dBA in the weaving shed. Each subject performed 8 trials with each type of device on different days. Application force and tightness of spring were also evaluated. The results yielded a comfort grading for hearing protection devices. The comfort grading, however, depended on several factors in addition to application force and tightness of spring, which has been discussed.
